FIRESTONE -- A proposed gun training center near Colo. Highway 66 and Weld County Road 17 won a green light Tuesday from the Firestone Planning and Zoning Commission, which recommended approval of the plans 5-1.

The center would be run by a company called the Second Amendment Firearms Experience, which hopes to open this summer. The proposal has been controversial for the past two months, with several neighbors saying their lives and livelihoods would be disrupted by the newcomer.

"Firestone should be ashamed of itself," one neighbor said on leaving the Firestone town hall.

The sole vote against came from commissioner Jeff Jurgena, who did join the others in voting to expand Firestone's master plan boundaries to accommodate the center.

Ron Abramson, SAFE's managing partner and chief firearms instructor, had some pointed words for the range's critics. In his final argument before the planners, he said that over the past week, opponents had treated the commission to an "Alice in Wonderland" version of reality that ignored measures the center had taken to accommodate the area.

"It's as if things were turned upside down, where right is wrong, black is white, and truths are lies," he said. "There are 300 million guns in the U.S. People need a place to learn to use them safely and responsibly. If we can't build this place in this location ... with these measures for safety ... where can it be built?"

The recommendations will be put before Firestone's town board tonight for final approval. The town board also will consider a measure annexing the property into the town.

That annexation has been a sore point for some neighbors, many of whom have addresses that are either in Mead, Platteville or unincorporated Weld County.

"These are pickup-drivin', gun-rack totin' people," said neighbor Robert McDaniel. "These are not anti-gun nuts. And we're pissed off that we don't have a say in this."

When the hearings began last week, an avalanche of public comment stretched the proceedings over five hours. Part two took another four, but included as many supporters of the center as critics, including police officers who said the center was needed, and chief Boulder County park ranger Bevin Carithers, who testified that SAFE had taken sufficient measures to protect nearby nesting eagles.

"From what I can see, everything there would protect the birds easily," Carithers said. "It would not be a problem."

Clashes over sound have been common in the hearings, with SAFE testifying that its sound engineering would make the center inaudible over the existing noise in the area, while neighbors have insisted that at the least, a muffled noise would produce a "dripping faucet" effect. But planning commissioner Kelly Deitman, a long-time architect, said she was more than satisfied with the noise mitigation efforts.

"With what I've heard about what they plan to do out there, I'm very impressed," she said.

The measures include having the center be 50 feet below grade and muffled by bluffs, distance, berms and acoustic technology that turns the sound into heat. The site would sit on 10 acres of a roughly 900-acre property.

Abramson said SAFE picked Firestone because of the low taxes and business-friendly environment, though other communities had approached the group. He included Mead and Platteville among that number, an assertion that Mead Mayor Dick Macomber challenged.

"I've conferred with our town attorney, our town manager and our town planner," Macomber said. "The applicant has never, ever approached the town of Mead in spite of his testimony. If that's a bald-faced lie, what else is in error?"

The range plans to use frangible lead-free ammunition, designed to break apart on impact with a hard surface rather than punch through. In earlier hearings, residents said the rounds could include tungsten, a carcinogen, but Abramson said that hadn't been used in this sort of ammunition since the 1970s and '80s. The rounds are copper and zinc, he said.

Former Firestone mayor Mike Simone said he was sure the town and its staff would make sure everything was handled properly, noting several times when town leaders and residents had stood up to undesirable projects. But McDaniel wasn't convinced.

"His board defended the citizens of Firestone from having something in their backyard they didn't want," he said. "Who's going to defend mine?"

The town board meeting begins at 7 p.m. in Firestone's town hall, 151 Grant Ave.

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